


Case #2: Shackles of Fate

by blue_noize



Series: Midorijima Police Department Precinct 21 [3]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Bad at these, Bartender AU, Kidnapping, M/M, Midorijima Police Department Precinct 21: Platinum Jail Case Study, Missed this series, Other tags to be added, Part 2, Smut, So bad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-07 01:17:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12222783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_noize/pseuds/blue_noize
Summary: Noiz and Aoba have successfully closed one of the cases involved with Platinum Jail, but a new case comes on the arrival of three orphans who seem to have been kept captive by the Kingpin.  Something about these kids keeps Noiz on edge.  At the same time, Mizuki tries to learn as much as he can about these two who seem to know more than they let on.What will become of Mizuki, and how will Noiz mend his shredded relationship with Aoba?Most important of all, how long will this Kingpin stay in the shadows?





	1. Will This Darkness Ever End?

**Author's Note:**

> It has been.....so long.....I'm so sorry this took so long. I mean, I'm still gonna be really slow about this. You guys know that I've never been good with keeping my updates steady, but I'll try to keep this story going. I love this one. Thanks for being patient!

He wondered how long this darkness would last. Was there ever going to be an end to it? Maybe he should just give in and tell them what he knew.

No. He couldn’t do that. Mizuki knew that he couldn’t give them anything. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be the only one suffering anymore. Aoba and Clear were his top priority. He would do whatever was necessary to keep the two of them safe.

Mizuki put his hand on the damp floor. Despite the dampness of this basement, it wasn’t cold. He knew winter was approaching, so he assumed that the basement would be cold. Or maybe he was suffering from hypothermia. He wasn’t sure anymore.

The two blondes hadn’t been back since his last encounter with them. That was a few days ago, and he guessed that they had decided to let him heal a bit before they attempted to murder him again. But with them, who could tell?

He was tired. So, so tired. Mizuki had no idea how he had survived this long. When was the last time he had eaten? Probably a few days.

Mizuki leaned his head against the hard wall of the basement. He missed them. Aoba, Clear, even that nasty fluffball that Aoba called a dog. Ren had never liked him.

Sighing, Mizuki tried to focus on Clear, and not his partner. Clear was his lover, his heart. But there was just something about the threat of death that caused Aoba to float into his thoughts. They had been together so long; they grew up together.

And he had never told Aoba how he truly felt.

Maybe, just maybe…

If he survived, he would tell Aoba the truth...


	2. New Cases Bring New Troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well look at this, another chapter! And so soon? Wow I'm on a roll, huh? Hope you enjoy and sorry this one is short, and it kinda sucks, but at least I'm writing, right?

There was a hush over the entirety of Midorijima Police Department Precinct 21. The only sounds to be heard were the clack of a keyboard and the hum of electricity. Everyone was trying to stay as silent as possible as to not wake up the sleeping child that was snoring quietly in Aoba’s office.

The shackles around the boy’s wrists clanked quietly every time he took a breath.

“Its a wonder he can sleep with those things on his wrists.”

Noiz looked up from the boy and rest his eyes on Aoba. The bluenette looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept the night before. Well, neither had Noiz, now that he thought about it.

As if he could feel Noiz’s gaze, Aoba looked up at the blonde.

“What?”

Noiz closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head slowly. Looking back at the boy, Noiz took in the sight as if for the first time.

The kid had to be at the most twelve years old. His sweater had a weird mouse face for a hood. His hands were covered by brown and yellow striped sleeves with the shackles on top of those. Curled up like he was, the kid looked so small.

As Aoba stared at Noiz and Noiz stared at the kid, there was a light knock on the door to Aoba’s office.

“How’s he doing?” Akushima asked as he stood in the doorway. His voice was very quiet, which was very strange to hear. The Chief of Police was usually always yelling at something.

Aoba sighed as he leaned back in his desk chair, running a hand through his already thoroughly mussed hair. “Sleeping still. Hasn’t woken up even once since we left Platinum Jail. Akushima, what the hell is going on?”

The Chief shook his head. “I don’t know, Seragaki. I wish I did, but I’ve got no clue.” He leaned against the door frame and turned his head to look at Noiz, who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. “What was it that he said before he passed out?”

Noiz let out a breath. “He said, ‘The King has my brother and sister, and he’s going to kill them because of what we did’.”

“The King? Could he mean the Kingpin?”

Aoba stood up from his desk and walked around it, his dress shoes making soft _whoosh_ noises on the plush carpet as he made his way towards the kid. “That’s what I thought, too. But we can’t know for sure until he wakes up. We had someone come and take a look at him and he doesn’t seem to be hurt or sick in any way. A little light on the weight scale, but considering those shackles, he’s probably been held captive for a few months now,” the bluenette explained. His voice was just as quiet as everyone else.

It was almost as if they were scared of waking him up, that if he woke up, everything would become real. Child abductions were bad in any situation, but hearing of three of them...well, that could only mean something was happening, something they weren't prepared for.

Akushima’s brows knit together. He then sighed and looked up at the ceiling as he said, “Well, we’ll just have to wait til he wakes up, then. But he can’t stay here. There’s too many people and who knows if he’ll panic or not.”

“Where is he gonna go then?” Aoba wondered. He was now squatting in front of the couch that the boy was lying on. He seemed to be staring at those shackles. It didn’t seem like they restricted the boy much, considering how long the chain was between them.

“I was thinking that he could go to your place, Seragaki.”

Aoba’s head whipped up so quickly that his hair flew in several directions. The look in his amber eyes could only be explained as panicked confusion. “What? Why me?”

Akushima turned his back on the other three and ran a hand through his hair as he propped his other hand on his hip. “You’ve go the bigger apartment, and you’ve got an extra room from what I saw when I took the mutt out the other day,” Akushima explained. There was a slight hint of amusement to his voice.

“But I can’t take care of a kid! I wouldn’t know where to start!”

“You can’t take care of a kid but you can take care of a mutt,” Noiz muttered, but he must have said it loud enough for Aoba to hear him. The bluenette turned to glare at Noiz with a “You’re not helping” expression. Noiz shrugged and held his hands up; he wanted no part of this.

“Wipe that look off your face, Noiz, because you’ll be helping him.”

Now it was Noiz’s turn to look at Akushima in astonishment. Him? Help? Take care of a kid? In Aoba’s apartment? Um…

“What are you talking about, Loudmouth?” Noiz intoned. He wasn’t gonna let Akushima know how much he was panicking in his mind.

“I’m talking about you two being partners,” Akushima explained slowly, as if he was talking to someone who didn’t understand the language. He kept his back turned but was glancing over his shoulder at the two. “This kid is your responsibility. You two brought him here. You two are in charge of all Platinum Jail’s cases. And since you found him there, he must have something to do with it. I want you two to keep close eye on this kid, so until further notice, neither of you are going to be going to Platinum Jail.”

“But what about being under cover?” Aoba questioned. He seemed less panicked than he did before, but that panic had morphed into complete confusion.

“That’s over for now.”

“Why?” both Noiz and Aoba asked.

Akushima snorted. “Remember all the damage to the place? That’s gonna take at least two weeks to fix completely. So the bar is closing until further notice; that’s why it won’t be a problem for the two of you to stay way from there and take care of this kid. We don’t know who might be looking for him, since it seems as if he escaped from his captors.”

Without even a goodbye, Akushima walked away, striding over to his office and slamming the door. He wasn’t going to give the two any more time to object.

After a few minutes of them standing on either side of the room in shock, Aoba sighed and put his head between his knees.

“Guess we have no choice, huh?” the bluenette whispered. Noiz said nothing.

He was still trying to understand what had just happened.

 

* * *

 

 

About an hour later, Aoba and Noiz were standing in front of Aoba’s apartment door, with the kid on Noiz’s back. They had taken Aoba’s car, but once Noiz picked up the kid, he wouldn’t let go.

“He really can sleep, huh?” Aoba muttered, chuckling quietly. He was struggling with the lock again.

“Why don’t you just have Clear open the door?” Noiz asked as he shifted the kid on his back slightly. His grip was slipping. For such a little kid, he sure was heavy.

“Because he’s holding onto Ren in my bedroom so that he doesn’t come barreling out and attacking while we have the kid.”

Not long before they left, Aoba had called Clear, Mizuki’s boyfriend, to go over and keep Ren calm, because Aoba had said that Ren didn’t like new people. He was worried for the kid.

After what seemed like forever, the lock clicked and the door to Aoba’s apartment swung open. As soon as it did, they could hear Ren’s loud yapping and Clear trying to calm him down.

“Take him right into the spare bedroom,” Aoba all but ordered after they had entered the apartment. “It’s down the hall past the bathroom, which is the room right past the yapping.”

Noiz nodded. He didn’t care that Aoba had ordered him to do something. He was more concerned about how heavy this kid was than anything else right now. He sped off towards the room, and thankfully, the door was already open. No struggling with a doorknob.

Once Noiz had reached the full sized bed in the middle of the room, he, gently as possible, flopped the kid onto it. The chain that connected the shackles almost strangled him, but he managed to fling them over his head before they could do so. Noiz took a breath and looked back at the kid, who had curled back up into a ball.

“Who are you, kid?” Noiz whispered. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. Talking to a comatose kid wouldn’t help anything.

The blonde was about to stand up and walk out of the room when he heard a small whimper from the kid’s direction. Turning back to him, Noiz saw that the kid was crying in his sleep.

“Mio...Kio...Nao is sorry.”


	3. The Kid and the Mutt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna add a summary because I am just terrible at them and it'll just make things worse, haha. I wanna thank everyone for not giving up on me after all this time. I'm getting back into the swing of things so I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Noiz stared at the kid curled up in the bed for a moment. It sounded as if he said three names. The blonde guessed that the first two were his brother and sister, so that left “Nao”, and the third person speech.

The kid hadn’t even woken up yet and he was already confusing Noiz. He didn’t understand kids. The only kid he had ever been around and been able to stand was his brother, and Theo wasn’t exactly a kid anymore.

Noiz wondered how Theo was doing with his studies. He hadn’t been able to contact his brother at all, not since he had left Noiz standing in that lobby. The blonde missed his brother.

“Noiz?”

Turning back towards the doorway, Noiz saw a silhouette standing there. Based on the soft waves of Ocean Breeze that wafted towards the younger man, it was Aoba standing there. Noiz still didn’t know how to approach the older man. Whenever he tried, it felt like his chest was going to explode. It wasn’t a physical kind of pain, of course, because Noiz couldn’t feel anything, but it hurt nonetheless.

“You okay?” Aoba questioned when Noiz hadn’t answered him for a minute. “You’ve got a weird look on your face.”

The blonde shook his head and averted his eyes from the blinding light that was Aoba. Even in near total darkness, just the sight of Aoba caused something weird to happen in his chest. He’d already mentally mentioned that, though. His thoughts went around in circles and he couldn’t stop them.

“I’m fine,” he finally muttered as he breezed past Aoba out into the hallway. “Just tired from carrying the kid up those stairs. Your building really needs an elevator.”

The blonde didn’t wait for a response. He needed to put some distance between them.

Noiz heard Aoba chuckle softly at his back. It wasn’t long before the soft steps that belonged to Aoba followed him. When he had gotten back into the living room, the mutt was curled up on the couch and Noiz could hear someone clanging around in the kitchen.

_Must be Clear. God what a weird name._

“Noiz!” called a voice the was just slightly louder than the kitchen, “Do you want some coffee?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Sugar or cream?”

“Little bit of each.”

“’Kay.”

Noiz was surprised at how easy it was to converse with this kid. He normally couldn’t stand talking to anyone younger than him. Drove him crazy. He mentally shook off the weirdness and plopped himself on the couch, next to the mutt. Said mutt then picked himself up on his stubby little legs and jumped onto Noiz’s lap to circle twice, and then curl into a ball and fall back asleep.

“It really is weird that he took such a liking to you, Noiz.”

The blonde looked up from the living ball of fluff to see Aoba standing relatively close to him with two mugs of coffee, one of which had a little bunny on it while the other had what looked like a mini (or mini-er) version of Ren. The bluenette held out the mug with the bunny and Noiz snorted.

“Theo must have gotten to you, somehow.”

Aoba sat in a cream colored arm chair and tucked his legs beneath him as he cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.

“What are you talkin’ about?”

“The bunny,” Noiz said, his voice almost giving off a sarcastic vibe. “Theo, my younger brother, thinks that I’m obsessed with bunnies, and you gave me the mug with a bunny on it.”

“Did I?” Aoba asked him, knowing full well that he did. He gave Noiz a big grin. “I didn’t notice!”

Noiz snorted again and rolled his eyes. He took a sip of the coffee and looked down at the dog in his lap. The tiny thing had started snoring. The blonde scratched the mutt behind the ear, and he leaned into his hand. For whatever reason, Noiz found himself smiling slightly. He had never had a pet before; it was a weird experience to pet a dog. He couldn’t feel it, but he knew that the mutt was enjoying it, which made Noiz oddly happy.

It was then that the younger man remembered what Aoba had said when he first walked in.

“What were you saying about the mutt?” Noiz asked.

Aoba nodded as he swallowed a mouth full of coffee. He had put his hair back up into its signature ponytail and it bobbed slightly as he nodded. Reaching forward to set his mug down on the table in front of him, Aoba repeated, “I had said that it was weird that Ren took such a liking to you, almost from the moment you first got here. He’s normally really wary of strangers.” The bluenette looked fondly at the mutt that was still in Noiz’s lap.

Surprising Noiz, Aoba stood up and took the three steps needed to reach Noiz on the couch. Crouching down in front of the blonde, almost in between his knees, the older man smiled and scratched the top of Ren’s tiny head.

The closeness made Noiz feel awkward. The fact that Aoba’s face was inches away from his crotch made things even worse.

“What are you two doing?”

Noiz whipped his head up to see Clear staring at them from the doorway to the kitchen. Despite the surgical mask that covered the lower half of his face, the light of amusement in his eyes was obvious. Aoba just turned on the ball of one foot and looked up at Clear.

“I’m just petting Ren, Clear, nothing going on.”

_Oh sure, nothing going on for you, but goddamn, could you back up?_

Almost as if he read Noiz’s thoughts, Aoba stood up and walked back over to his chair, picking up his coffee as he went.

“So who’s the kid?” Clear wondered, sitting down on the floor next to Aoba. The kid seemed to be pretty attached to the bluenette. Aoba put a hand on Clear’s head and ruffled his pale hair lightly. “You never really explained on the phone.”

“It was kinda hard to explain at the moment just because of the chaos,” Aoba started to explain, “But we found him at PJ, and he said something about the ‘King’ having his brother and sister, so we think it might be the Kingpin who has them. But we aren’t sure. Akushima thinks that we should keep watch over him until he wakes up and we can figure out what’s really going on.”

Clear nodded through the entire explanation. Near the end, he had put a hand to his chin and looked down at the floor, as if in thought. After a moment, Clear raised his head and looked at Noiz. The blonde was surprised by the intensity that resided in his eyes.

“It might be a warning,” Clear offered, looking from Noiz to Aoba. Both of them leaned forward slightly, understanding the feasibility of the statement.

“That makes sense,” Noiz agreed. The blonde stared down at the white-haired kid. He didn’t want to look too much at Aoba. “If the Kingpin really has that kid’s brother and sister, and this kid randomly shows up at Platinum Jail the day it gets trashed, the Kingpin might know about us being undercover there.”

Aoba nodded. His amber eyes had gone dark, whether with anger or worry, Noiz couldn’t tell. He had his eyes downcast and was picking at the edge of his jeans. It was if a switch had been hit and all of the amusement and joy that was normally part of Aoba had just fizzled out, like a candle burnt to its end.

“But none of this will help find Mizuki,” Noiz stated, saying what he knew was on Aoba’s mind. Both the bluenette and Clear looked up at Noiz with matching looks of pain. The blonde had no idea if Clear knew about Aoba’s feelings for Mizuki. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make anyone upset.”

There was an in tandem sigh and Aoba shook his head, his ponytail swaying. Clear hung his head.

“Don’t worry about it. You’re right. That’s exactly what I was thinking. We don’t know if its the Kingpin who has Mizuki. We won’t know until we catch the bastard anyway.”

The three sat in silence for a while, no one brave enough to say a word. What seemed like eons later, Clear cleared (ha...haha…) his throat quietly and stood up. The two older men looked up at him.

“I’m, uh, gonna head home. I have afternoon classes today.”

Aoba nodded and smiled up at his friend. “Not a problem, Clear. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on your studies.”

Clear’s eyes lit up in a what seemed like a smile. It was hard to tell because of the mask. The bluenette stood up to walk the younger man out. As they made their way to the door, Noiz heard hushed goodbyes.

He really fucked up...again. He opened his big mouth when he shouldn’t have. What was it about Aoba and anyone associated with him that made Noiz lose all control over his words. Looking up at the ceiling, Noiz played with one of the piercings on his lower lip. It always helped to calm him down.

Noiz heard the front door shut and he turned his gaze from the pale, tan ceiling tiles to where Aoba was standing, his forehead against the door. Noiz said nothing. He didn’t want to fuck up again.

He wouldn’t even get a chance to, though, because Ren picked his head up and let out a small growl. It didn’t last long because the tiny fluffball hopped off of Noiz’s lap to pad over towards the hallway. Aoba, hearing the growl, turned around and walked back towards Noiz, his bare feet quiet on the hardwood and then carpet as he made his way from the entryway into the living room.

“What’s going on?”

Noiz shrugged, but he stood up and followed Ren. The dog had gone silent. Aoba wasn’t far behind Noiz.

Aoba’s bedroom door was open and afternoon sunlight filtered through the crack in the curtains enough to see that the dog wasn’t in there. The bathroom door was closed, so that was a no.

“The only other room is the kid’s room,” Aoba muttered. Noiz could feel Aoba’s breath on his neck. Weird. There it was again. The ability to feel when it came to Aoba.

Noiz pushed that thought away and peeked into the spare room, Aoba doing the same underneath his arm. What they saw surprised them.

The young boy, Nao, was sitting on the middle of the bed, his mouse-hood down as he scratched Ren’s chin. Noiz was confused about how the mutt had gotten up on the bed with his stubby little legs, but he saw the little staircase that Aoba must have gotten so he could get onto the beds with no trouble.

“You have a really nice doggy, sir. He didn’t growl at me or anything.”

At the sound of his voice, Aoba and Noiz stepped fully into the doorway. The boy wasn’t even looking at them. He was too engrossed in the fluffball in front of him.

Aoba was the first to make a move. He walked into the room to sit down lightly on the edge of the bed. “How long have you been awake?”

The kid shrugged. “Dunno, a few minutes. I heard you talking and didn’t wanna mess up your conversation.”

Aoba smiled slightly and glanced over at Noiz, who didn’t move.

“Well, now the only thing we’re gonna talk about is you, since you’re up. We gotta ask you some questions so we can help get your siblings back.”

Nao’s head whipped up and the two saw the tears in his dark eyes.

“Mio and Kio?”

“Are those the names of your brother and sister?” Aoba asked the kid. When he nodded, Aoba pulled his sleeve over his hand and wiped gently at the boy’s cheeks, drying the tears. “We’re gonna do whatever is necessary to get them back, but we need you to tell us everything you know about the King and where he kept you, okay?”

The kid nodded again. “I’ll help you. I just want Mio and Kio back. I miss them.” The tears had stopped, but he was still sniffling. He raised his head to look at Noiz. “Are you gonna help, too?”

Noiz took a few steps towards the bed and knelt down to look into the kid’s eyes. “I promise you, Nao, I will do whatever I can to find them and bring them home.”

Nao blinked. “You know my name?” he asked, his voice small but with a small hint of hope to it. “How?”

“Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you trust us, okay? Both Aoba and I will protect you. I swear it.”

Tears filled the kid’s eyes again and he flung himself at Noiz, wrapping his arms around the blonde’s neck. Noiz was knocked backwards and Ren barked. This was the second time this had happened that day.

When Noiz looked up at Aoba, he saw a strange kind of softness and affection in his eyes.

What the hell?


End file.
